An American airman and a teammate have been praised as heroes for helping to save the lives of a Nigerian woman and three of her very young children from a burning building in South Korea.
When he saw the fire while walking to an eatery for dinner on Friday (April 29), US Air Force Master Sergeant Daniel Raimondo and a colleague quickly decided to get some blankets from a nearby store.
He then rallied people in the street to help them hold the blankets while persuading the woman to throw her three kids down from their fourth-storey apartment, above a burning unit. He managed to convince the woman to do so after her initial reluctance as her children were very young – aged 1, 3 and 4.
The incident happened in Pyeongtaek, outside a US airbase.
Facebook screengrabs, YouTube screengrabs
One of his teammates, Dan Frost, put up a video on his Facebook page of the harrowing escape, as the crowd below egged the woman on.
The dramatic footage shows the mother dangling her children, one by one, out of the window and dropping them to the screaming crowd below, as plumes of black smoke billowed relentlessly from the burning flat on the second floor.
Raimondo (in photo below) told CNN he repeatedly begged the mother: “Please just throw the baby down!
“I remember her screaming (at) the baby, ‘I love you, I love you. …’ Next thing you know she dropped the baby.”
When it was the mother’s turn to jump, thick smoke had already engulfed the exterior of the building.
He said the woman fell more heavily than the children did, but someone had the foresight to put cushions underneath the blanket.
His action was praised by netizens.
Said Facebook user Hannah VonTana: “Thank you MSgt Raimondo! You are a true American Hero!”
chenj@sph.com.sg
